Thursday, March 29, 2012

Leftover
snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them
up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place
them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the
apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice
cream. Yummm!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

I found this recipe on Grandparents.com. and I did added the pecans but that was the only change made. These cookies were such a hit with my food testers! They were gone in no time. For changes, add some shredded coconut or maybe some raisins. They are great with the pecans but just as good without.
Find the recipe by going to my site Martha's Recipe Cabinet

Another recipe going to the manuscript file. This recipe actually started out as something else. It was supposed to be patties but I either added too many hashbrowns or my idea to glue it together with cheese simply didn't work. BUT...this dish became a success when I decided to "scatter" fry everything and turn it into hash. Watch for it this fall when Think With Your Taste Buds - Beef is released.

Comments: These can be made into cookies instead of muffins. You can add coconut. You can change the chip flavor. Just get creative and Think With Your Taste Buds. These were a big hit with my food testers.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

He has certainly hit the "world" on the head! Billy Graham's Prayer For Our
Nation THIS MAN SURE HAS A GOOD VIEW OF WHAT'S
HAPPENING TO OUR COUNTRY!

Heavenly Father,

We come before you today to ask your
forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know your Word says,
'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We
have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited
the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it
welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot
abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our
children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it
politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We
have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of
expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and
called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts
today; cleanse us from sin and set us free.
Amen!'

With the Lord's help, may this prayer
sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we once again
can be called 'One nation under God!'

Think about this: if you forward this
prayer to every on you email list, then in less than 30 days it would be heard
by the world.

I have to tell you that this is one of the best, yet simpliest Pepper Steak recipes around. This recipe dates back to the 1950s when ingredients were super simple. Well, I hate to have to tell you this but it now going in the manuscript file for Think With Your Taste Buds - Beef which should be out this fall.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

It's that time again. Lillian and I have strated working on our next Think With Your Taste Buds cookbook which will feature beef. That means we will be pulling recipes and moving them to our manuscript file. Our first recipe to be pulled is the Ground Beef Dirty Rice. This is a good one so if you didn't get a chance to copy and try this dish, watch for it in Think With Your Taste Buds - Beef which we hope to have out this fall.

This message was sent to me by a friend and it's a must share with everyone!

I have a friend who used
her solar lights inside at night when her current was off during the
hurricane. She stuck them in a jar or bottle and said they gave off plenty of
'free light'. She put one in each room and would put them back outside in the
daytime and bring them in at night as long as the current was off. They are
safe to use and cheaper than batteries. Bring in a solar light one night and
test it.

Due to a thunderstorm,
we lost power for about 5 hours. We were scrambling around in the darkness,
looking for matches, candles, flashlights, etc We looked outside, and noticed
our solar lights shining brightly all around our patio, stairs, dock, etc.
They were beautiful. My wife walked outside, and brought several of the solar
lights inside.

We stuck the solar light
pipes into plastic drink bottles containers and they made the nicest,
brightest, safest, lighting you could ever imagine.

We put one in the
bathroom, the kitchen, the living room, etc. There was plenty of light There
are all types of solar lights available. We bought ours at Harbor Freight. We
put them all around our yard. They look nice and they do not attract flying
bugs like the outdoor lights around our doorway.

The lights we have fit
into the small (20 oz) water bottles and they also fit into most of the larger
liter bottles. If you need a weight in the plastic bottle to keep them from
tipping over, you can put a few of the pretty colorful "flat marbles" that
they put in aquariums, and vases. (you can also use sand, aquarium gravel,
etc., whatever you have available).

The lights we have were
perfect inside our home. They burn all night long if you need them.

The next day, you just
take your solar lights back outside and they will instantly recharge and be
ready for you to use again any time you need them.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

This recipe is a variation of the Jiffy Banana Split Cake. I changed
the pudding to vanilla instead of banana. I added the strawberries and
pineapple instead of the pineapple pie filling and added them to the
pudding mixture. Now for some wonderful changes. Use pistachio
pudding, omit the strawberries and use a large can of drained pineapple
and fold in about a cup of mini marshmallows. top with cool whip, nuts
and coconut and you have Watergate Jiffy Pudding Cake! Other changes
can consist of changing the cake flavor, pudding flavor and fruit
flavor. I've been asked if you can use a full size cake mix and the
answer is yes if you make 2 cakes. Jiffy mix is cheap and simple to
make so I suggest using it unless you want to get creative with the
flavors since Jiffy, I believe, only comes in vanilla and chocolate.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Grab a refrigerator magnet on your way out the door, we all have tons of them!

Always take a small magnet on your vacation, they come in handy at the end of it.This is pretty good info. Never even thought about key cards containing anything other than an access code for the room!

HOTEL KEY CARDS

Ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card? Answer:a. Customer's nameb. Customer's partial home addressc. Hotel room numberd. Check-in date and out datese. Customer's credit card number and expiration date!When
you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is there
for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the hotel
scanner. An employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a
scanning device, access the information onto a laptop computer and go
shopping at your expense. Simply
put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an
employee reissues the card to the next hotel guest. At that time, the
new guest's information is electronically 'overwritten' on the card and
the previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process. But
until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in
a drawer at the front desk with YOUR INFORMATION ON IT! The
bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy
them. NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and
NEVER turn them into the front desk when you check out of a room. They
will not charge you for the card (it's illegal) and you'll be sure you
are not leaving a lot of valuable personal information on it that could
be easily lifted off with any simple scanning device card reader. For
the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still
have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash
basket. Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the electronic information strip! If
you have a small magnet, pass it across the magnetic strip several
times. Then try it in the door, it will not work. It erases everything
on the card. Information courtesy of: Metropolitan Police Service.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Guys, you must see this site. I've never heard the history of Ramen Noodles but after visiting Infographic: We Love Ramen I've found myself highly educated in regards to this delicious yet inexpensive college student staple.

Ramen has been a staple in American student cuisine for quite some time
now, because of how inexpensive and edible it is. Ramen can also be
quite filling if you add some of your own signature cooking hacks to it.
This original Hack College Infographic was created because we, like
many students around the world are just so crazy in love with ramen.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

The original recipe came from The Jones Way.
It called for 1/2 cup of pancake syrup which I didn't have so I used
the light corn syrup and added the rum flavoring. You can increase or
decrease the rum but taste it after the butter has been added for a
truer flavor. The original recipe also called for 2 small tubes or 1
large tub of Grand biscuits. I decided to try the Butter Me Not (those
with chips of butter throughout the biscuits). These worked wonderfully
and allowed me to use 2 cans. I also increased the amount of cinnamon
from 1/2 tsp. to 1 tsp. When tasting I felt it needed just a bit more.
So, Think With Your Taste Buds on this one. There are so many
options. You can use the corn syrup and change up the extract
flavorings. You can change the biscuits to maybe flaky. You can even
change from cinnamon to allspice, apple pie spices, nutmeg, etc. View my version of these Sticky Buns by going to Martha's Recipe Cabinet.

Friday, March 9, 2012

I
had a few words with AT&T last night. There was a $9.99 charge on
my cell phone charges and it’s been there for 3 months now. It’s a
service called "Blackout Mobile Marketing, Inc.” and I didn’t
order it! When I talked to AT&T cell service the woman got upset
because I wanted to cancel my service. She tried to say they would
block all texts so I wouldn’t be charged anymore and that they would
give me my service for $29.99 plus tax and service charges per month,
coming to about $42.00 per month. Last month I used 34 cell phone
minutes and have over 4,000 roll-over minutes. With the minutes I used it came to $1.25 per
minute. Not worth it! She told me they would credit the last 3 months
of the $9.99 charge and I still insisted that I wanted to cancel my service. She then told me they would
charge me $75.00 to discontinue because my contract runs until August
and they would NOT refund my 3 months of $9.99 charges. Well, I very
‘nicely’ told her to disconnect my cell phone and I would never use
AT&T cell again plus I will be posting on my site about the scam
charges that they were collecting knowing they were scams. I told her
that I went to their own site and they are the ones who were telling people that
the Blackout Mobile Marketing charge is a scam but they do this AFTER people call to complain. So, I have cell service with AT&T until the 20th
and after that I’m going to Wally World and buy a Track Phone and pay
for my minutes using their $30.00 for 300 minutes service.

Moral of the story - don't do like I do and just pay your bills without inspecting the statement and watch for scams such as this Blackout Mobile Marketing so you won't get stuck like myself and others who have been caught up in this AT&T scam.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

I had never tried Vodka sauce until I found a coupon for a jar of
Wolfgang Puck's. When I saw a recipe for Easy Chicken Parmesan from
Kraft foods I decided to give it a try using the Vodka sauce and Romano
instead of Parmesan. Good choice! It turned out delicious. See my full recipe by going to Martha's Recipe Cabinet. You can
use any flavor of spaghetti sauce but give this one a try. I don't
think you'll be disappointed when you bite into that juicy, tender
chicken. Now, did Wolfgang Puck's Creamy Vodka Sauce give me what I wanted? Find out my rating for this product by going to The Good, The Bad, The Maybe.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Get your ethnic dishes ready and join Tony from Authentic Greek Recipes as he creates ------

Well, the carnivals are over for this year, but we've decided to organise our own monthly Carnival - a Blog Carnival!
We obviously focus on Greek recipes on this blog, but there are so many
delightful ethnic dishes from around the world that we want to feature a
selection of these every month in what we are calling World Food Delights.

How will it work? Well, any bloggers with ethnic recipes can submit one
of their blog posts with a recipe that fits in the particular category
for each month, we select the best and then they are all featured on the
Blog Carnival, with a short description and a direct link to the
recipe. We are also going to pin the photo from each of the selected
recipes on Pinterest, with a direct link to the recipe.

The first edition of World Food Delights will be on Sunday April 1st. As a 'sweetener' to start things off the category will be Sweets and Desserts. So if you have a blog with ethnic recipes and want to submit a sweet or dessert to be featured, just click on Submit on the button at the bottom of this post. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday 28th March.

Let us just say that we are going to give preference to bloggers who are
actual natives / residents of the country for which they are submitting
a recipe - in other words, local cooks wherever possible. Also, if you
have a blog post which is not a recipe, but you feel it is related to
the field of international cooking, then you can submit that as well.
All posts need to be in English.

So if you have recipes from Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Japan,
Thailand, India or wherever, then just click on the button below and
send it. And even if you don't, just visit this blog on Sunday April 1st to find a great selection of World Food Delights!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

This tip came from Thrifty Fun and receives a thumbs up from me. I'm for anything organic instead of poison.

I hate any kind of bugs or spiders, even ants. If you can see
them, it's so much easier to control. I was looking into smaller units
that send out radio frequency that you just plug into outlets. I have
known about these since the early 90's. They work really well with
rodents and roaches.

In my garage which is not attached to the unit, there isn't an outlet
near where the mice would be. With weather changing this year, I was
very afraid to even open the cabinet doors! Not only am I terrified of
them, they are so dirty leaving behind many germs.

The solution I found was so easy, cheap and works. Cajun pepper
sprinkled around doors and next to the wall gets rid of any problem
without poison or finding a dead mouse in those traps. The man who told
me about this has it sprayed all over his attic. He re-does it one time a
year. I'm amazed at ideas I would never have thought of.

They don't eat it and die where you put the pepper, it appears they
can't stand being around it at all. Make sure you have things covered
that could be ruined from the Cajun pepper. If it's where there is no
chance of getting wet, it isn't different than a layer of dust. It can
be sprayed over large area or put against walls, doors and openings
straight from package.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

On February 27, 2012, Sunkist® held its first Cara Cara Cooking Class at
Sur La Table at the Original Farmer’s Market in Los Angeles. Guests
rolled up their sleeves alongside renowned Chef Danhi to chop, grill,
juice and candy Sunkist® Cara Cara oranges. Want to know what they cooked? Visit Sunkist to view a recap of the event.

The Cara Cara orange, also known as the “Power Orange®”, is packed with
vitamin A and C, fiber, folate and potassium, and lycopene: the
disease-fighting antioxidant. It is a seedless orange with a
tangy-cranberry like zing and it's delicious! The coloring has a slight red tint making your finished dish even more appealing.

I went to the Sunkist site to check out their recipes and decided to come up with one of my own. To do this, I enlisted the help of 3 of my grandkids and a friend. We created the Cara Cara Smoothy and boy is it good! If you don't believe these 4 kids, try it yourself.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

The original recipe did not include the cheese. That was my idea. You can also use Parmesan cheese instead of the Romano. You might even want to try this with broccoli instead of the Brussels sprouts. See this simple recipe by going to Martha's Recipe Cabinet.

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Martha A. Cheves

I'm from Georgia, moved to North Carolina by way of Florida. I've been in Charlotte for 14 years and love it. The recipes in my book Stir, Laugh, Repeat are all tested by "Food Testers" of which I now have 24. They try a dish and rate it from 1-10 with only those scoring at least an 8 making the book. My website is a holding place for my 2nd book Stir, Laugh, Repeat... Again. Please visit my site to find new recipes and tips. All recipes are easy, using common ingredients and according to my testers, great!
When I wrote my introduction about a year ago and a lot has happened since then. I now have 5 blog sites that keep me pretty busy. Two of my sites are dedicated to nothing but recipes. Martha's Recipe Cabinet holds recipes that will be included in one of my upcoming cookbooks. Martha's Kitchen Korner consists of recipes that are good but still need just a bit of work. On A Book and A Dish you will find my book reviews and the author's favorite recipe. Stir, Laugh, Repeat holds reviews written about my cookbook Stir, Laugh, Repeat and the site you are now on is the "mother" site for all of these. Here you will find cooking tips, simple recipes and updates for additions to the "offspring sites." So, enjoy!